New building inspector fired

The town of Silver City is, once again, without a building inspector. Grant County native and longtime construction professional Jerry Louck filled the building inspector post for around three months before he was fired at the end of January.

This is the second time in the last year that a building inspector has left his post at the town, voluntarily or otherwise. David Farley, who held the post for years, quit in July 2016.

Farley declined to provide a reason for his own departure for this story.

According to Louck, he was given no reason for his termination. The 61-year-old building professional had joined the town as building inspector in October, moving his family back to his hometown from St. Louis, Mo., where he and his wife had lived for several years.

“I didn’t leave. I was told to leave,” Louck said. “I was working, doing my job, and was terminated and given no reason for it. I have never been fired in my life. I planned to finish out my career here in Silver City. It was a mindblower.”

Louck said he had worked as a building inspector in other states in recent years.

In New Mexico, though, new requirements of the Construction Industries Division of the New Mexico Regulation and Licensing Department approved in 2014 insist building inspectors be supervised by someone certified in a new position called a “building official.” These officials are expected to have more experience than is required for a building inspector.

So, during Louck’s couple of months on the job, he was studying and taking exams to secure his building official credentials. While he was preparing for those credentials, he was overseen by Gina Gentile, the building official in Deming. Gentile could not be reached.

According to Silver City Town Manager Alex Brown, the town will return building inspection to Gentile’s care for the time being.

“We will stay with that for right now while we evaluate what all we need,” Brown said.

Neither Brown nor town Community Development Director Jaime Embick would speak to Louck’s departure, even to confirm whether Louck was fired or had resigned. Their reasoning was that they are not, by statute, allowed to reveal “personnel matters” to the public. In New Mexico, the Inspection of Public Records Act includes an exception which keeps “letters or memorandums which are matters of opinion in personnel files or students’ cumulative files” from being made public — the chief exception governments use to keep employees’ information private.

“This exception is aimed at protecting documents in an agency’s personnel or student files that contain subjective rather than factual information about particular individuals,” according to an explanation included in the IPRA itself.

The agreement for Gentile’s work is with the town of Silver City. Construction projects outside of town will continue to work with state government building officials.

According to Stuart Egnal, owner of Custom Steelworks — who works closely with building inspectors on many projects —working with Gentile, even given her travel time from Deming, worked fine before. But, he said Louck had done a great job in his short time in the position.

“Jerry was really one in a million,” Egnal said. “He was experienced, wanted to be here and do the job for the money they were offering.”

According to Louck, the town was paying him an annual salary just over $39,000.

“It wasn’t top dollar for my experience and that position, but they stretched to afford that for me, I think,” he said. “It was above and beyond for the town of Silver City.”

For his part, Louck is looking for work both locally and out of state, as is his wife. He said he is intent on moving on with his life, not dwelling on his disappointment.